My First Day In Portand for Write The Docs

I started my day in the early hours of the morning, making my way to the Oakland Airport. The purpose of this trip was to attend Writethedocs. This particular conference brings together people who write the directions, the how to guide for processes that inform our work and even our daily lives; perhaps we can see them as modern day scribes. These individuals have a variety of roles such as Programmer, Technical Writer, Customer Support, Designer, Developer Advocates, and more”.

On a small jet engine plane, I was feeling deary and cloudy consumed by symptoms of a cold. My seat vibrated the entire flight. The sky was clear. I enjoyed a beautiful view of mountain peaks covered in snow. I attempted to get an estimate of the planes speed by searching out the furthest mountain peak and timing how long it took the plane to pass it. I was mesmerized by a beautiful skyline, before I knew it the plane landed in Portland. To my surprise Portland was sunny and slightly humid, the weather felt very tropical.

The conference was held at the McMenamins Crystal Ball Room. The ballroom on the third floor housed the main stage, food, swag, registration etc. I often found my self a little off balance while walking around the ballroom becasuse the floor actually bounced a little, this was due to the mechanical floating dance floor we were all standing and walking on. In the main ballroom we listened to speakers from various companies, talk about their best practices when it came to documentation.

There was also an unconference downstairs on the 2nd floor, where folks could post a topic on a board in a time slot and those interested in the topic could join the group and discuss it to their hearts content. I found this was where I met the most people and learned the most. As for those new to public speaking or who had something great to share, they were given the opportunity to do lightning talks on the main stage.

The final day of the conference ended with a job fair and of course more talks. I found write the docs to be great for experienced writers while also being a great resource for newbies, such as recent grads, aspiring technical writers and folks fresh out of college. The culture was geekie, inviting, supportive and intellectually stimulating.